Looking for travel inspiration this St. Patrick's Day? These cruise destinations are filled with lush landscapes, emerald waters, and unforgettable views, from Puerto Rico's rainforests to the Bahamas' turquoise waters and Italy's stunning Amalfi Coast.
St. Patrick's Day celebrates all things green: shamrocks, leprechauns, Irish pride, and that unmistakable emerald spirit that takes over cities worldwide every March 17th. But why limit your celebration to parades and green beer when you can surround yourself with genuinely green destinations where nature provides the color palette?
From tropical rainforests dripping with vegetation to turquoise Caribbean waters that rival any gemstone's brilliance, cruise itineraries deliver access to some of the world's greenest, most beautiful ports. Whether you're sailing during St. Patrick's Day week or simply seeking inspiration for future travels celebrating nature's most vibrant hue, these destinations showcase green in its most spectacular forms.
Pack your camera, embrace your inner Irish spirit (honorary membership absolutely counts), and discover cruise ports where every view feels like a lucky charm.
Ireland: The Original Emerald Isle
You can't discuss green destinations without starting at the source: Ireland, the Emerald Isle itself, where rolling green hills, dramatic coastal cliffs, and centuries of Celtic history create the ultimate St. Patrick's Day pilgrimage.
Dublin serves as Ireland's primary cruise port, welcoming ships from April through October on Northern Europe and British Isles itineraries. The capital city overflows with Irish culture, from the historic Trinity College (housing the 9th-century Book of Kells) to Temple Bar's cobblestoned streets filled with traditional pubs serving Guinness and live Irish music. St. Patrick's Cathedral—Ireland's largest cathedral, built in 1220—honors the patron saint whose feast day inspired the global celebration.
Phoenix Park stretches across 1,750 acres as Europe's largest enclosed public park, featuring wild deer herds, Dublin Zoo, gardens, and wide green spaces perfect for leisurely walks. The Georgian architecture lining Dublin's streets, the River Liffey cutting through the city center, and nearby coastal views from Howth create a thoroughly Irish experience impossible to replicate anywhere else.
Cobh (pronounced "Cove"), located in Cork Harbor, offers another Irish cruise port experience. This charming harbor town served as the Titanic's final port of call in 1912 and remains steeped in maritime history. The colorful row houses climbing hillsides, St. Colman's Cathedral's Gothic spires, and Cork's River Lee attractions provide quintessentially Irish scenery celebrating the country's green landscapes and deep cultural roots.
Puerto Rico: El Yunque's Emerald Rainforest
Puerto Rico's El Yunque National Forest delivers tropical green unlike anywhere else—the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System, where 28,000 acres of lush mountainous terrain create a living, breathing celebration of nature's most vibrant color.
Located 45 minutes from San Juan's cruise port, El Yunque receives approximately 200 inches of rainfall annually (16 feet!), creating perpetually green landscapes where waterfalls cascade over volcanic rock, giant ferns tower overhead, and the forest canopy blocks out sunlight in emerald-filtered darkness. The biodiversity rivals any rainforest globally—240 tree species, 150 fern species, 50 orchid species, and hundreds of unique plants found nowhere else on Earth.
Cruise excursions into El Yunque combine scenic drives through winding mountain roads with guided hikes to waterfalls like La Coca Falls (85-foot cascade visible from the roadside) and opportunities to swim in natural pools fed by crystalline rivers. The Yokahu Observation Tower provides panoramic views where the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea merge on the horizon, the rainforest canopy spreading endlessly below in shades of green so varied you'd need an entirely new color vocabulary.
Adventure seekers enjoy natural waterslides carved into smooth rock by centuries of flowing water, rope swings launching swimmers into pools, and cliff jumping from safe heights supervised by experienced guides. The endangered Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata) lives exclusively in El Yunque, its bright green plumage blending perfectly into the forest canopy. You're more likely to hear its distinctive call than spot one, but even the sound adds to the rainforest magic.
El Portal Visitor Center at the forest entrance provides educational exhibits, gift shops, and trail information before venturing deeper into the mountains. The forest's cultural significance runs deep—Taino indigenous peoples considered El Yunque sacred, believing their god Yuquiyu (for whom the forest is named) resided in the mountain peaks protecting Puerto Ricans from hurricanes and disasters.
Bahamas: Turquoise Waters and Emerald Islands
The Bahamas showcases green through its impossibly turquoise waters; shades so vivid they seem digitally enhanced, ranging from pale seafoam in shallow sandbars to deep emerald in channels between islands.
Nassau serves as the Bahamas' cruise capital, welcoming hundreds of ships weekly to its downtown port minutes from Bay Street's duty-free shopping, historic forts, and pink sand beaches. But the real green magic happens beyond the main island. The Exumas, an archipelago of 365 cays, feature some of the Caribbean's clearest, greenest waters where visibility extends 100+ feet and the seafloor glows turquoise beneath sailboats and yachts.
Paradise Island's Atlantis Resort creates tropical landscapes through intentionally designed gardens, lagoons, and marine habitats showcasing Caribbean greenery alongside tourist attractions. The resort's Aquaventure water park, marine exhibits, and casino draw cruise passengers on day passes, but the lush landscaping and turquoise harbor views steal the show.
Great Stirrup Cay and Half Moon Cay, Norwegian Cruise Line's and Holland America's private islands respectively, deliver pristine beach experiences where turquoise water laps white sand beaches, palm trees provide natural shade, and the only footprints in the sand are yours. The water color ranges from pale mint green in ankle-deep shallows to deep teal where the seafloor drops into channels, creating that signature Bahamian gradient impossible to capture in photographs despite everyone's best efforts.
Green sea turtles, tropical fish in emerald and lime hues, and underwater gardens of sea grass create ecosystems as green below the waterline as rainforests are above it. Snorkeling excursions reveal parrotfish, angelfish, and other reef species displaying nature's entire green spectrum from subtle sage to electric neon.
Cozumel, Mexico: Mayan Jungle Meets Caribbean Green
Cozumel delivers green through dual personalities. Dense jungle interior holding Mayan ruins and ecological parks, plus Caribbean waters rivaling the Bahamas for turquoise brilliance.
San Gervasio, Cozumel's largest archaeological site, sits deep in the island's jungle interior where Mayan temples emerge from tropical vegetation. Chankanaab National Park combines beach access, snorkeling reefs, botanical gardens showcasing 60+ tropical plant species, and lagoons where sunlight filters through palm canopies creating dappled green shadows on crystal water.
The island's western coastline—facing mainland Mexico—features that signature Mexican Caribbean green-blue gradient where shallow reefs create lighter patches against deeper channels. Snorkeling and diving sites like Palancar Reef and Colombia Reef showcase underwater ecosystems bursting with green moray eels, parrotfish, sea turtles, and coral formations covered in algae creating an underwater forest effect.
Punta Sur Eco Beach Park occupies Cozumel's southern tip with mangrove forests, lagoons, beaches, and the Celarain Lighthouse offering panoramic island views. The mangroves showcase green in its most practical ecological form—tangled root systems creating nurseries for juvenile fish, filtering water, preventing erosion, and maintaining the delicate balance between land and sea that makes Caribbean islands so biodiverse.
Cruise passengers seeking adventure book jungle ATV tours, zip-lining through forest canopies, or visits to cenotes—natural sinkholes filled with crystal-clear freshwater where sunlight penetrates creating eerie green-blue illumination in underwater caverns. The contrast between above-ground jungle green and below-ground aqua-green cenote water creates otherworldly experiences found only in Mexico's Yucatan region.
Jamaica: Mountains, Waterfalls, and Tropical Green
Jamaica celebrates green through mountainous rainforest interior, cascading waterfalls, and that laid-back Caribbean vibe where "no problem, mon" philosophy extends to nature's color palette.
Ocho Rios cruise port provides access to Dunn's River Falls—Jamaica's most photographed natural attraction where 600 feet of terraced limestone waterfalls cascade into turquoise pools surrounded by lush tropical gardens. Climbing the falls (with guides forming human chains for safety) takes you through mist-soaked greenery where ferns drip, mosses cling to rocks, and the waterfall spray creates constant rainbows in sunlight.
Mystic Mountain rainforest adventure park offers bobsled rides through jungle canopy, zip-lining over treetops, and chairlift ascents providing aerial views of Ocho Rios, the coastline, and mountains draped in every shade of green imaginable. The Blue Mountains—Jamaica's highest range reaching 7,402 feet—produce world-famous Blue Mountain Coffee in plantations clinging to steep hillsides where altitude and tropical rainfall create perfect growing conditions.
Montego Bay and Falmouth provide alternative cruise ports with access to Martha Brae River rafting (gentle bamboo raft trips through jungle), Rose Hall Great House plantation tours showcasing colonial history amid tropical gardens, and beach clubs where turquoise Caribbean water meets white sand beneath swaying palms.
The island's reggae culture, jerk cuisine, and welcoming locals create experiences as colorful as the landscapes. But nature provides the real show—tropical birds in emerald plumage, banana plantations' giant green leaves, sugarcane fields, and rainforest preserves where vegetation grows so thick you can barely see 20 feet ahead.
Amalfi Coast, Italy: Terraced Green Meets Mediterranean Blue
The Amalfi Coast delivers green through impossibly steep hillsides terraced with lemon groves, vineyards, and olive trees climbing from sea level to mountain peaks, creating one of Europe's most dramatically beautiful coastlines.
Cruise ships dock in Salerno or tender into Amalfi itself, where pastel-colored villages cling to vertical cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea. The terracing system developed over centuries allows agriculture on slopes that should be impossible to farm—lemons as large as grapefruits hang from trees, grapevines produce grapes for local wine, and olive groves provide oil for regional cuisine. The greenery contrasts sharply with terracotta rooftops, white-washed buildings, and impossibly blue Mediterranean water below.
Valle delle Ferriere (Valley of the Ironworks) nature reserve offers hiking trails through lush subtropical vegetation past waterfalls, abandoned mills, and forests so green and humid they resemble tropical rainforests despite Mediterranean latitude. The microclimate created by the valley's protection from sea winds allows ferns, mosses, and rare plant species to thrive.
Positano and Ravello—accessible by ferry or bus from Amalfi—showcase the same vertical green terracing. Ravello's Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone feature gardens overlooking the coast where bougainvillea drapes stone walls in shocking pink, but the manicured lawns, cypress trees, and Mediterranean vegetation create elegant green spaces contrasting with wild hillside terraces below.
The Amalfi Coast Drive winds 25 miles along cliffsides with hairpin turns revealing new vistas at every corner—lemon groves tumbling down hillsides, villages perched on impossible slopes, and the Tyrrhenian Sea stretching to the horizon. Oleander blooms pink and white by roadsides, but the dominant impression remains green—cultivated, terraced, hard-won green wrested from vertical cliffs through generations of patient agricultural innovation.
Celebrate Green Year-Round Through Cruise Travel
St. Patrick's Day arrives once annually, but cruise itineraries deliver access to green destinations year-round. Caribbean routes sailing to Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cozumel, and the Bahamas operate every month, providing tropical green regardless of season. Mediterranean cruises featuring the Amalfi Coast run April through October when hillside vegetation peaks in lush growth. Northern Europe and British Isles itineraries including Ireland operate May through September when the Emerald Isle lives up to its name through spring and summer growth.
The beauty of cruise travel lies in effortless destination variety—wake up in Puerto Rico's rainforest port, sail overnight, and arrive in turquoise Bahamian waters the next morning. Or combine European cultural exploration with Amalfi Coast natural beauty, Dublin's Irish charm, and Mediterranean island stops all in one voyage.
Ready to chase green destinations around the globe? Browse Caribbean cruises visiting Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cozumel, and the Bahamas, Mediterranean cruises featuring the Amalfi Coast, and Northern Europe itineraries including Ireland—and discover why every day feels like St. Patrick's Day when you're surrounded by nature's most beautiful color with CruiseDirect.
